630 TT CFI. Still working that hour-building job, hoping like everything I get the sub-20k/year 135 job flying a Caravan that I'll be interviewing for in a week. It would be a pay raise and some turbine time to put in the logbook. Have I disqualified myself as any source of intelligent thought yet?

If not....

Some (I believe, at this point, all) new entrants to aviation don't do it for the money. Or the job security. Or the schedule. I learned to fly airplanes because it was in my blood and for no other reason. If it's not in your blood, and the career has burned you out, I see no reason to stick with it. Regrets over wasted time will only get bigger the more time you waste. Find an IT job making six figures and be happy.

If the thought of working an IT job makes you sick to your stomach, maybe the sub-50k job at the regionals has something to it after all. The industry sucks, but you're doing the job that is somehow stuck in your blood to have to do. If the industry hasn't driven you away yet, that sort of thing must have some monetary value. Either that, or you're hanging on *hoping* things will change. Guess what. They don't.

Just my inexperienced thoughts. I'll crawl back to my part 91 / time-building forum section now.